Advancing global health

We live our purpose of creating healthier futures through our business and philanthropic strategies. Often, those strategies work together to amplify innovative solutions that serve our customers, their patients, and our shared communities.

Facilitating innovation and collaboration

Contributing to the future of quality care around the world relies on curiosity and innovation. In 2022, we created Cencora Ventures (formerly AB Health Ventures), a dedicated corporate venture capital fund to help identify entrepreneurs who are looking to revolutionize healthcare with us. By investing in innovative healthcare start-ups, this fund sparks new ideas, generates additional value, accelerates product development, and brings forward potential solutions that will benefit our customers. Cencora Ventures has committed to donating 10% of future realized profits to support the efforts of the Cencora Impact Foundation and its continued work to improve healthcare access globally.

To further fuel innovative ideation, our Global Products and Solutions team hosts a Community of Practice (CoP) to foster a collaborative product culture that gives all our team members the guidance and tools to participate in innovation at Cencora. The CoP provides opportunities to connect across the organization as we continue to globally integrate, helping build inclusive and collaborative teams to solve challenges facing our customers. This group grew its membership 15 percent across 16 countries in FY24 to more than 1,100 team members, who are invited to meet monthly to discuss products in development and to share best practices.

Cencora Healthier Futures
Grant Program

Additionally, the Cencora Impact Foundation launched the Cencora Healthier Futures Grant Program in FY23 to identify opportunities to support innovation in global health, and in FY24, initiated a request for proposals. Charitable organizations were invited to submit ideas for projects focused on three challenges facing the pharmaceutical supply chain that the nonprofit community is well suited to address:

Contributing to the solution to end drug shortages
Increasing awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance
Supporting global pharmaceutical supply chain infrastructure

Combating drug shortages

Cencora offers innovative shortage mitigation solutions designed to provide customers with reliable access to critical medications, including those at risk of going on shortage. In urgent situations, our Customer Operations and Replenishment Operations team members help facilitate patient access in shortage situations in various ways, including working with suppliers for reserved inventory or helping find other pharmacies that may have the medication on hand.

In FY24, Cencora also introduced a virtual solution for emergency drug management, Essential Med Reserve. This new platform for managing stockpiles of essential medications eliminates outdated, hard-to-manage physical reserves, and it enables rapid access to critical products during crises. Given the complexities of combating drug shortages, Cencora also partners with other organizations including the Duke-Margolis Drug Supply Chain Resilience and Advanced Manufacturing Consortium, and the End Drug Shortages Alliance. We also continue to collaborate with national and European authorities, to identify and support effective policy solutions that can improve the reliability and affordability of medications.

In the U.S.

Our nonprofit partner, Healthcare Ready, leverages unique relationships with government, nonprofit, and medical supply chains to build and enhance the resiliency of communities. With grant funding from the Cencora Impact Foundation in FY24, Healthcare Ready conducted a landscape review of state-managed medication stockpiles in the United States. Results of that research are presented in a white paper that introduces key drivers, barriers, and planning considerations for state public health departments to develop or maintain medication stockpiles and highlights how strategic reserves can safeguard patient access during crises.

In Europe

Alliance Healthcare is a member of the Critical Medicines Alliance (CMA), set up in January 2024 by the European Union’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (DG HERA). CMA convenes relevant stakeholders from across the E.U. medicines supply chain to identify priority areas for action to strengthen supply of medicines in the European Union, ultimately enhancing efforts to prevent and address drug shortages effectively.

Antimicrobial resistance

As a healthcare leader, we are continuously focused on what we may face next as a global population, such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR poses a significant public health threat, as it diminishes the effectiveness of lifesaving antibiotics and treatments, leading to increased mortality rates, prolonged illnesses, and a greater burden on healthcare systems. The Cencora Impact Foundation is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation’s AMR Fund to bring together partners and make meaningful progress on this issue.

The Cencora Impact Foundation supported a CDC Foundation in-person AMR roundtable of global subject matter experts, policymakers, and industry partners in FY23. With additional grant funding in FY24, the roundtable is serving as a catalyst for the creation of a new annual survey that will support global data collection on current public awareness, understanding, and attitudes of AMR and antibiotic and antifungal use. The data from this survey will help accelerate progress towards achieving the goals outlined in the World Healthcare Organization’s (WHO) Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance and the US National Action Plan to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.

In February 2024, Alliance Healthcare España hosted an AMR Roundtable in Madrid. The event brought together healthcare leaders and policymakers to review actions being taken in Spain and across Europe to address the risk and to discuss measures being proposed by the European Commission. In FY24, we continued to support World AMR Awareness Week through activities in Alliance Healthcare UK and Alphega Pharmacy to drive greater public awareness of the risks of AMR and promote the role of pharmacy stewardship.

Vaccine equity

We also continued to advocate for vaccine equity across the world. In 2022, the Cencora Impact Foundation made an initial grant to the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign to protect marginalized communities from devastating vaccine-preventable diseases. Over the last two years, the Foundation increased its support to protect the health of refugees and internally displaced people globally, aiming to address immunization gaps by vaccinating approximately 400,000 children around the world against polio. Through our partnership, 312,500 polio vaccinations have already reached children in Malawi, Tanzania, and Madagascar, putting us on track to exceed our original target and contributing to the overall health resilience of these communities.

Photo by David Uttley for Direct Relief

Overcoming supply chain disruptions through collaboration and action

During supply disruptions, Cencora’s purpose drives us to collaborate with suppliers, industry groups, nonprofits, government agencies, and customers to advocate for patients and ensure equitable access to pharmaceuticals. The Cencora Impact Foundation quickly donated to nonprofit partners supporting US communities affected by Hurricane Helene's widespread damage and forced closure of a key customer’s manufacturing plant. The Foundation, through our proactive emergency response strategy, prepositions funds with partners like Americares and Direct Relief to act swiftly during disasters globally. Direct Relief sent six shipments to Cencora partner NC MedAssist, a statewide charitable pharmacy providing free medications to low-income residents. With these shipments, NC MedAssist helped address the health needs of North Carolina communities impacted by the hurricane, providing access to critical medications like insulin, despite the challenges of collapsed infrastructure.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, our teams also endeavored to mitigate customer impact and activated the Cencora Team Assistance Fund’s emergency protocol to support affected team members.

“Our Distribution Center, Transportation, and Business Continuity teams responded swiftly to support our customers affected by Hurricane Helene. Our dedicated team members worked tirelessly around the clock during the storm to fulfill and deliver critical patient orders. While these situations are undoubtedly challenging, Cencora consistently rises to the occasion, embodying our mission to positively impact the communities we serve.”

Donnie Smith, Jr.
Vice President, Operations

Our stories of purpose

Across the enterprise, our team members collaborate with each other and our partners to advance global health and save lives. Here are several highlights from FY24 that show how we lived our purpose and created meaningful impact.

Expanding access to quality care

In FY24, Cencora patient services continued its mission to create healthier futures by helping more patients access critical therapies. Leveraging new technologies, our team was able to support:

3.5M+

active patients

200k+

active providers

350k+

Patient Assistance Program enrollments

Leading in times of global health challenges

Amid a critical mpox outbreak that prompted the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency, World Courier delivered 100,000 mpox vaccine doses to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The region's difficult terrain, tropical climate, and limited infrastructure, particularly reliable electricity and cold storage, posed significant challenges. The vaccines, requiring strict temperature controls and monitoring, were transported using advanced technology and local expertise to efficiently navigate customs. This successful delivery underscores our commitment to global health, combating the mpox outbreak and facilitating further shipments to additional African nations.

The Cencora Impact Foundation also activated philanthropic funds to support our nonprofit partner Direct Relief in their response to the outbreak, emphasizing the protection of healthcare workers.

Improving accessibility to animal care with telehealth services

Access to care remains a major hurdle for animal owners, with many pets in the U.S. lacking adequate veterinary care. In FY24, MWI, part of our Animal Health business, began providing access to virtual veterinary consultations through its AllyDVM client engagement platform. Embracing recent regulatory changes allowing virtual consultations, the offering has enabled veterinary practices in our network to provide patients with easier, more efficient access to care.

Since launching, AllyDVM facilitated about 200 hours of virtual veterinary visits. The initiative is particularly instrumental for animal owners in rural communities, who often must travel longer distances to get veterinary services . With virtual care, veterinary practices can meet animal owners where they are, improving their ability to deliver effective, timely care.

Evolving our operations in sync with pharmaceutical innovation

PharmaLex became a partner in the Fingenious ecosystem, a collaboration network involving public, academic, and private actors in health and biomedical research in Finland. Together, they aim to enhance international research collaboration by providing a single window into the Finnish service and data offering.

PharmaLex’s Chief Strategy Officer, Kirsten Jacobs, wrote an article in the Pharmaceutical Executive addressing challenges faced by our manufacturer partners and the need for innovative, cost-effective approaches to manage patient safety requirements and compliance amidst complex regulations. The commentary reflects the evolution of our partners' needs over the past 20 years and underscores the value we offer throughout the product lifecycle to accelerate the development of novel therapies.

Read Kirsten's article

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